Indigenously built Anti-Submarine Warship INS Kiltan commissioned into Navy

On October 16, 2017, Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman commissioned India’s third indigenously built Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) corvette INS Kiltan into the Indian Navy. The commissioning ceremony was held at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh and was attended by Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Sunil Lanba.

Specifications of INS Kiltan:

INS Kiltan is the third of the four ASW corvettes to be built under Project-28.It has been designed by Directorate of Naval Design and has been built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata.

• INS Kiltan is 109 meters long and 14 meters at the beam. Its displacement tonnage (ship’s weight) is 3500 tonnes.
• It is propelled by four diesel engines can achieve speeds in excess of 25 knots with an endurance of 3,450 nautical miles.
• INS Kiltan’s crew will comprise 13 officers and 178 sailors.
• The ship is armed with heavy weight torpedoes, ASW rockets, 76 mm caliber medium range gun and two multi-barrel 30 mm guns.
• It is Indian Navy’s first major warship which has superstructure made of carbon fibre composite material imported from Sweden. This not only improves the stealth features but has also resulted in lower weight (100 tonnes lighter than the previous corvettes) and maintenance costs.
• As a pilot project, INS Kiltan has undertaken sea trials of all major weapons and sensors before commissioning. It is thus the first major Indian warship to have done so.
• It is named after a coral island in Aminidivi group of the strategically located Lakshadweep and Minicoy group of Islands.

About Project 28:

Project-28 is Indian Government’s 7800 crore project to build and induct four Kamorta-class Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW) corvettes in Indian Navy.

• It was approved in year 2003.
• Besides INS Kiltan, other two ships that have been commissioned under this project are INS Kamorta (commissioned in 2014) and INS Kadmatt (commissioned in 2016).
• Construction work on the fourth ship, INS Kavaratti is in progress and is expected to be completed by end of 2017.